This is my first time hunting on planet where environmental damage should occur every time i exit ship/vehicle. So i'v just noticed two things. NPCs under my command do not suffer from environmental damage and i can switch from environmental protection suit to armour as soon as i get out of vehicle, without any damage suffered. Does it function as planed, will it change in future?

Elias, i know that you take damage when you get out, and than in 1700. But it is easy to avoid it by to switching to armour right after you get out of vehicle/ship. And without our NPCs taking same damage, it looks like purpose of planet atmo damage is lost.

As an update, I did get hold of Kyle and we chatted about this a bit. It looks like the atmosphere damage upon removing environmental protection armour will be implemented, but the NPC situation is a bit uncertain. Kyle stated he believes it is unintended. Unfortunately he has been busy with a few other tasks this weekend, so this will not be immediately rectified.

Thanks for update. Reason i ask about NPCs is because it could have more effect on combat than implementation of environmental damage just on players. That 15-20 armour taken from players will and should hurt. But on NPC squads, it will be difference of possibly some 180 damage per round with 15 armour.

EDIT: After some time i got chance to try this again. See that i can still change from survival suit to armour right after i get out of vehicle.

There are two problems that I see with causing all NPCs to have to implement Environmental suits:

First, can you imagine the logistical nightmare involved in having to unequip squad upon squad of NPCs to put Enviro suits on them, then unequip the Enviro gear to put on regular armor, while doing something with the dropped gear (crating it up and throwing it back on your ship or personnel carrier, perhaps)?

Second, while all this is going on, whomever is already equipped in armor on the surface can either take a free shot while the dressing-undressing is going on, or they get to attack the NPCs wearing non-armored Enviro gear. The same thing would hold true for creatures who are in range and are aggressive enough to want to attack.

it's already enough of a time drain for PCs to make this change, multiple times a day if they're hunting and jumping in and out of ships to follow moving targets. Multiplying by every NPC with them, then again by the number of squads in use (once squad combat is implemented A.D. ("After Derra"), is almost as much a nightmare as the unmourned loss of ammunition.

The alternative is that NPCs will be drained of from 5% to 30% of their hp's when they exit to the surface, which is a significant amount when figuring combat squad-wide.

I see no problem in allowing the current system to stay in place: NPCs are assumed to have standard protective gear, and that the PCs have to watch out for their own livelihood by donning/undonning their own survival gear.

Well Belloq, for start i can imagine logistical nightmare and would like to see it. Logistical nightmare is part of every war. Don't see any reason to be different in SWC universe. Wars are and should be hard to fought.

But i don't want that either PCs or NPCs are able to switch from armour to environmental suit as soon as thay get out of ships/vehicles. I want to see them suffer from environmental damage as soon as thay do that. Reason for that is that wars should be hard to fought. Especially so on hostile environment terrains.

The Combine has already reduced some night mare headaches, like the ammo logjam that I mentioned.

This is a simulation designed to mimic in canon events, to be sure. But there are many allowances being made so that we can enjoy the game aspects: we don't reload weapons, we don't restock the material for hyperdrives, we don't bury deceased warriors or workers.

All of these could be part of a more realistic environment, of course. But the question is: how much would that attention to detail make people who are here to enjoy the gaming aspects, not enjoy it?

The Asims are constantly trying to balance reality vs. game play. I believe in this instance, the further attention to equipping and unequipping so many hundreds of troops would be both unnecessary and an impediment to actual combat.

He was talking about how players can bypass the environmental damage altogether despite removal of survival gear, which is not intended. The NPC issue is undecided and would better be discussed in the suggestions forum.

As far as PCs having to suffer enviro damage when changing armor on a hostile surface: the best way to handle this, IMHO, is to allow a PC to wear an enviro suit *under* their armor, suits that would protect them from environmental harm but would add nothing to protection from blaster and physical weapons. The new RP slot, or one of the Utility slots, could be used for that.

I know, I know: send it to the Suggestions corner. On my way, Mon Capitan.